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Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Everyone Is Getting In On The 'Button' Game

We've seen them all around the web. Facebook has its Like button, StumbleUpon has their stumble button and Twitter has a retweet button. This week however we were introduced to two new buttons with reports of a third major site releasing one of their own.

The first of the new button army comes courtesy of Twitter which revealed a new Follow Button. The new Twitter Follow Button allows visitors to instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from any website. It gives readers one click access to a pop out which features a snapshot of the button users Twitter profile and Tweets. Giving your viewers easy access to follow your Twitter account.

The second button in this button onslaught that we'll see populating web pages soon is the new Google +1 button. Google started rolling out the +1 button in March via their search results. On many Google search page you'll see a small +1 symbol next to your results allow you to recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from the Google search results and ads. This week Google announced plans to allow webmasters to add a Google +1 button to any site on the web. Making it quicker and easier for you to share those sites with your Google social circle.

Not to be left behind is LinkedIn who is reportedly set to launch a button for employers’ websites called “Apply With LinkedIn”. Unlike the others that promote sharing this new button allows job candidates easy access to LinkedIn to submit their LinkedIn profiles as resumes.

The new button, which will be displayed alongside job descriptions on partner sites, features a pop-up box with a prompt to sign into LinkedIn. The user is then given the option to edit parts of his or her LinkedIn profile and contact information. There is also an option for employers to add a few quick questions for potential employees to answer. Once the user finalizes the application by clicking a “Submit Application” button the box then displays an application confirmation, and displays either additional job openings at that company or a list of the user’s LinkedIn contacts who are affiliated with the company to which he or she has just applied.

The new Twitter and Google buttons are currently out in the wild and can already be found on several major sites. There is no word on when the "Apply With LinkedIn" might go live but I'm sure we'll see it soon.